The Sea Eagles hardly stopped talking at Cronk throughout their round-22 clash with the Storm at Brookvale Oval on August 8, and although Melbourne won 16-10, the home side thought their targeting of him had the desired effect.

Cronk had a relatively quiet game and the Storm's win came largely off the back of a couple of huge plays from them and too many turnovers by Manly.

The constant dialogue did not take the form of crude sledging, but was like a running commentary of Cronk's game that was designed to unnerve and distract him when he received the ball, through players loudly predicting what he was going to do before he did it and sending defenders either his way or the way of his anticipated runners.

It is not unusual for players to try to put pressure on their opponents by calling what they regard as the likely play, but Manly are one of the best teams at it. They are relentless when they want to put the heat on someone, and that was how they were in that game against the Storm.

Five-eighth Greg Inglis and fullback Billy Slater were singled out for some similar attention on the night, but Cronk was the main target.

The absence of Melbourne hooker Cameron Smith, who is suspended, the inexperience of his replacement, Russell Aitken, in that position, and the fact Inglis is more a runner than a playmaker means the responsibility of getting the attack going will mainly fall on Cronk's shoulders.

The word is Manly will make another big effort to try to distract Cronk - and back it up by running as much traffic as possible through their big forwards at him, in an attempt to tire him out.

The Sea Eagles will test out Aitken, too, if they get the chance. Any defensive dominance by Manly could put pressure on his passing game from dummy half. Cronulla were not able to pressure him in the game won 28-0 by the Storm on Friday, but he still came up with a couple of handling errors playing in the unfamiliar position...............

I seem to recall him (Cronk) scoring a try against us (or against Choc more to the point) so the mental disintegration couldn't have been too bad. I think we need to up the ante this week, perhaps get Steve Waugh in as a consultant, work on a few "you've just dropped the Telstra Cup" whenever he knocks on, or a "what does Craig Bellamy's dick taste like ?". Perhaps a "does your husband play ?", or the English version of whatever the Eyeties said to ZeeZou in the World Cup. Got any others we can pass on...........I've got Matty Orfords email addressÂ